My asparagus seedlings doing quite well

I really love the taste of fresh asparagus, and I love cooking with it too.

It’s not too cheap as a product, and its growing season in Britain is short, so I thought growing my own would be a great idea.

Asparagus is one of our oldest crops, and there are references to it being cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans. It is a good source of folic acid, potassium,  fibre and rutin. It is rich in the amino acid asparagine which gets its name from asparagus.

Before a couple of weeks ago, I had no idea how to grow asparagus, but had heard that it was a very fussy plant. It can be grown from seed or from crowns, and most people recommend starting off with good quality crowns. A crown is essentially a large clump of asparagus roots and plant sprouts. I couldn’t find any locally produced organic asparagus crowns but managed to get some good organic seed, so I’m going to grow mine from seed.

Jekka McVicar in her book ‘Seeds’ recommends that you soak your seeds for 24 hours before planting. Then plant them out into modules of peat free soil-less seed compost. Cover with vermiculite and place under protection at 15 degrees C. Between two to four weeks later, the seeds will germinate.

I planted 16 modules up like this, with two seeds per module. The leftover seeds were spread between being planted into six larger modules without the vermiculite, and some just scattered into the stainless steel planter in the photo.

Germination results
13 of the 32 seeds in the smaller modules have germinated, and 16 in the larger modules. 25 of them have germinated in the stainless steel pot and are growing the most strongly. These were the ones I just scattered randomly onto some pre-moistened soil, and sprinkled a light covering of soil on top. I am surprised at how well these ones are doing compared to the others, considering that I just half heartedly threw them in the pot.

In a couple more weeks, when the seedlings are larger and well established, move them to three inch pots. I would suggest a general compost, mixed with a little pea shingle to improve drainage. Place them outside during the summer growing season, but move them onto a shed window sill or under a cold frame over winter.

I have to look after these little babies for about a year before I can plant them into the asparagus bed. Even then, it will be two years before I can cut any asparagus seeds. In the meantime I have to prepare the asparagus bed, which is a massive undertaking if you want to do it properly.

Preparing the asparagus bed
Pick a strip of land about 1.2m wide and as long as you like.This strip of land should be in a nice sunny spot, sheltered from strong winds and with good drainage. We’ve picked a spot at the top of the slope of our field, so if it rains hard the water will run off easily. The corner of our field gets sun all day long, and has hedges and small trees all around it so it is sheltered from the wind.

Dig it deeply and dig it well. I know that I always say that you should remove all perennial weed roots when digging, but this is especially important with asparagus; once the plants are in, they are staying there for many years to come. So whilst digging, remove all perennial weed roots.

Keep re-visiting the asparagus patch every couple of weeks and weed thoroughly, going deep to remove any perennial weed roots you have missed. In the autumn before planting, dig in plenty of well rotted manure.

Planting out
I am going to leave this until later, because it’s going to be a year until I plant out my asparagus seedlings. If you want to get one step ahead, and are using crowns, then go here and follow these instructions.